Of all the social media platforms, Facebook seems to be the one that is standing the test of time. Perhaps the oldest of the big three—Twitter, Instagram, Facebook)—it’s a platform that has seen generational shifts.
Facebook Ads remain some of the most powerful ways of capturing new leads and creating loyal customers that will be with your company for many years to come. The Reach and Engagement potential is staggering and thanks to the ever-changing and adapting platform, businesses can rely on it to keep them at the forefront of every marketing campaign.
To get you started, we’ve put together a list of tips to help your small business thrive on Facebook.
1. Decide on your goals
What do you wish to accomplish with your Facebook Ads? Small business owners utilise Facebook because it has text ads, video ads and hashtag campaigns which can lead customers to your website and movements which you create.
You must post with intent, and be headed by some kind of overarching strategy. You will be mindful of the type of audience you’re after. Will they be young, old, male, female or into various genres of products and services? You can’t throw things onto the platform and hope that the world will pick up on them.
You have to have intention with every post. So pour your resources into key areas and manage your budget to satisfy your aims. Always have a mix of content so you’re keeping your consumers entertained and paying attention.
2. Install your Facebook pixel
Facebook pixel is a code that you place onto your website and it will collect valuable data about your Facebook ads, concerning conversion rates, clicks, optimisation options which could work better. This allows you to remarket products and services, based purely off the code that you install.
It means less time for your marketing teams to be left scratching their heads as to why something is not working and the ability to be swifter and more accurate in any ad changes you make.
3. Create your Facebook page (or group)
Creating a Facebook page or group is incredibly important. It allows everyone to congregate in one spot.
No matter if they are newcomers, loyal customers or just curious, they should be able to join a group dedicated to your business. Here you can post your updates, ads, comments and respond to queries and questions.
To create a Page:
- Go to facebook.com/pages/create.
- Choose a Page type.
- Fill out the required info.
- Click Continue and follow the on-screen instructions.
To create a group:
- Click in the top right of the Facebook home page, select Group.
- Enter your group name, choose the privacy option and then add people to your group.
- Click Create.
4. Post with purpose
Posting with purpose doesn’t sound difficult on the surface, but so many small business owners get it wrong. You want to have the right tone of voice when it comes to your Facebook marketing strategy.
When you’re writing a post and describing a link you’re about to include, act as if you’re talking to a customer at a business exhibition. You want them to be intrigued by what you’re showing them and get them to click on the link.
Types of Facebook posts
Great SEO creative content is highly recommended for your organic social leads. Interesting blog posts will always keep customers coming back. Images have to be supremely high-quality. The higher the quality, the more attractive and eye-catching they will be.
Video posts have to be carefully marketed. If you have done an hour-long interview with another professional in the industry or with a media outlet, just post clips of the interview. This will get scrollers to stop and watch a 1-minute clip and if they’re taken in by it, click on the link in the post to watch the full thing.
5. Use a content calendar
Keep users coming back with an orderly release of content using a content calendar such as Buffer or Sprout Social. This allows you to schedule your content, automatically releasing it on the dates and times you set.
Paid social campaigns can coincide with your releases. So, create a blog post that is scheduled to release on Monday and work with your Paid social team to then take quotes from it and make them into images so users are drawn in by visual aids.
6. Stay active
Honestly, you will have lulls in the action as it were, but staying active is so crucial for your presence. If you see a dip in engagement, don’t let your foot off the gas pedal.
In fact, you should add more fuel to the fire with diverse content and having more interactive posts. Create polls, online competitions that have prizes and mention users that are following you to show users that you want to include them in your page.
7. Ignore vanity metrics
‘Most viewed’ videos aren’t always indicative of how well they did. If the interaction is low but the views are high, this is actually a missed opportunity.
So don’t pay attention to vanity metrics, you need to look for cold hard evidence such as click and bounce rates, scroll times and cursor hover times over the ads on the page.
8. Find your audience
Provide excellent customer service and you will one day find your audience. By the interactions that you receive, you’ll get to know who the most-likely audience members will be.
If you aimed to attract the younger crowd but instead, you find that most of the people leaving reviews of your page, sharing your ads and posts, are mostly older people, perhaps you need to rethink your strategy? Find your audience but if your audience finds you, that’s also great!
9. Learn how to use Facebook tools
Look for Facebook tutorials that are online and learn as much as you can. You can also download and install extensions in your browser for Facebook marketing especially. This will allow you to get the most out of the platform and always use the latest techniques.
We recommend that you never underestimate the power of this old but gold platform. Facebook has 2.7 billion monthly active users and is a very special marketing space you should be taking advantage of.
10. Check Adzooma Blog for more resources
We regularly update Adzooma Blog with a variety of topics including Facebook marketing so it’s worth visiting. Here are some examples of our articles:
- How Much Does Facebook Marketing Cost?
- 44 Practical Facebook Marketing Tips For Businesses
- A Guide To Social Media Marketing for Small Business
- 20 Social Media Marketing Tips for 2020
- Should You Hire A Facebook Ads Expert in 2020?
- How to Write Facebook Ads That Convert
- How To Get Ahead By Making Your Facebook Lookalike Audiences More Specific
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